Not Alone
by BBSHAW2012
Summary: A novice shinobi wanders into the vast destruction of Pain's wrath. What will this new shinobi do when she is met with cold stares since she resembles a certain black-haired, red-eyed s-rank ninja a little too much?
1. Chapter 1

The village of Konohagakure was in disarray. Pain's destruction and wreckage he forced upon the village had taken its toll and was nowhere near restoration. The large crater in the center of Konoha was still fresh with the blood of innocent and tents had been pitched within the boundaries of Konoha for the villagers. Nothing seemed solved even after the end of Pain, only a greater threat stood as his successor, Madara.

Sasuke had been gone with Madara, being manipulated by hatred and ideas of revenge that would never still. The young boy was powerful, but was very lost. The pain of being lied to had broken him, perhaps, beyond repair.

That is when I came into the picture. My name, Oshiro Kazuko, trailed me like a title and not a given name. My mother and uncle both had blue eyes and bright red hair. I had dark black eyes and thick black hair. I looked nothing like them, but they treated me as their own since my first memory.

I lived in the village of the hidden Star. It was a wannabe ninja village and the place I was raised. I wouldn't say that it was my home because I was sheltered all my life. I was watched closely by my mother, Azumi, and my uncle, Hiroshi. My uncle was a very skilled ninja whose people specialized in seals and medical jutsu. The skill of our clan passed down to me and I also became an excellent ninja in the eyes of the elders of the village hidden in the star. Despite not being born to the Iorin clan, with my Uncle's status as a high-ranking ninja I was able to learn the secrets of my adopted clan.

I was slowly surpassing my uncle in his shinobi skill. I perfected my Justus, charkra control, strategies, and weaponry. I needed to expand my horizons and that could not be done in the small village I was raised in. Like a koi, I could not grow in a place too small.

One summer, for the good of my family and villagers, I left the village to the land of the best ninja, Konoha. I was 16 and left my family and harbored the yearning of benign power.

The journey took a while, about a week on foot and in the trees. I was anxious and nervous. My heart was pounding and I was smiling at little things: bugs, the wind, the smell of tea and sweet buns. There was nothing more exciting to me than the idea of meeting more people with talent and techniques to teach a young girl. I felt my skin shiver as I left the plains of the wind country and reached the forests of the fire country. _I am closer_, I would always mumble to myself.

It took another three days to reach the village through thickets of forests with the occasional stop to help a weary traveler into the next village with their loads. As I pulled the cart of an old man up a hill and into a small village on the cusp of reaching Konoha, I noticed a woman wearing a large fan. She sat drinking tea with her legs crossed and her back straight. She stood out among the other dreary people sitting around her, but it might have been her sandy-blonde hair or the look of confident power in her eyes.

I ordered some tea for myself and a warm towel for the old man. He was bent over as he sat on an uncomfortable rock. It turned out, as he told me over our journey together, that he had received an injury plowing the fields. He usually didn't pull the fields anymore but his mule had just given birth and was recovering. His name was Hotaka, an old man in his early sixties and battered over the years of tough farming.

Hotaka smiled wearily at me as I placed the warm linen over his bent, aching neck. His collar was sweat soaked and stained with hard labor. Hotaka's mapped face was tanned with the sun's familiarity and his hands were calloused and scarred.

I sat at his feet on the ground and drank my tea quietly, and Hotaka rubbed his hands together.

"Hotaka-jiichan, is something wrong?" I asked him calmly.

Hotaka looked at me with his knowledgeable grey eyes and smiled again at me, and I returned the smile with my resilient face.

He shook his head, "I am in sadness for Konoha."

"Why, Hotaka-jiichan? What has happened to Konohagakure?" I set my tea cup down on the thin, itchy grass. I hadn't realized how well my family kept me from the outside world when Hotaka told me about the terrible state Konoha was forced in.

"I was told that Konoha had been destroyed and the people were in a dark age, Oshiro-san." He continued to rub his hands, "a terribly powerful man turned his vengeance onto the Leaf village. They were saved by a brave hero who is thought to be the next hokage."

"Hotaka-jiichan, that's awful. How many casualties were there? Do you know?"

"You are the ninja, not me. Sorry Oshiro-san, but famers out here don't get much more information than that." He grunted and rubbed his back as the old man attempted to stand from his perch.

I stood up and rested my hands on his lower back, "please Hotaka-jiichan, let me help you." I used my medical nin-jutsu to heal the aching in his spine and increased the scar tissue of his muscles. I couldn't cure his old age, but I could make it easier for him to function as a tired man.

My palms illuminated a calm green and I felt cool pressure across my hand. The coolness turned to heat as it melted the ache in Hotaka's back and up his spine to his shoulders. He no longer felt the heat of the linen wrapped around his neck, but instead felt the touch of my skilled nin-jutsu. I felt him exhale a sigh under my fingertips and a smile of accomplishment eased my pursed lips into a smile.

"Thank you Oshiro-san. That feels very nice." Hotaka stood to his feet and handed me the towel that was now cook with his sweat. I heard his knees pop and wish I could only do more. I walked my teacup to the seller and ordered a refill of chai. I returned to Hotaka's side.

"Hotaka-jiichan, where are you heading from here?" I asked while sipping my tea.

He stroked his small goatee, and smiled, "I'm heading to the Leaf Village to sell my wares to the people. They needed all the help they can get now." He took the worn handles of his wagon and hoisted it to his hips.

"Hotaka-jiichan, please let me help. I am going to Konoha too, let me accompany you." I took the dilapidated handles from Hotaka's equally tatty palms. The load was virtually nothing compared to my strength but to Hotaka it would seem much heavier.

He rubbed his palms. He seemed to value them as worn pieces of art that map his history while others used them freely. I would suspect that those who use their hands for their livelihood, like Hotaka and his family, would be much more concerned. Hotaka was very conscious about his withered hands. I felt useless knowing that I would never really meet the old man after he left the Leaf Village and I became an even greater ninja.

"You both are going to Konoha?" asked the girl from the table who was drinking tea when we arrived. She was tall and beautiful. Her hair was held up in four ponytails and her eyes were a deep teal color. I wanted to stare at her sophistication wearing a yukata-styled dress with a red sash, but I knew better, and she was giving me a very strange look as if I were someone who wasn't in her good graces.

I nodded and stood before her with the handles firmly secured in my gloved hands, "yes, we are heading into Konoha later this afternoon. I am Oshiro Kazuka a ninja from the Star Village."

"I am Temari, jounin from the Sand. " She adjusted the fan on her back and stepped towards us. Hotaka was standing at my side.

"I am Hotaka Mojiro. I am a farmer a day's travel from the west." Hotaka bowed his head and smiled the smile that would tear down all hierarchy.

Temari smirked at the old man, but not at me. She gave me another hard look, "where are you from again?"

I swallowed an upcoming stutter, "I am from the Star Village."

"Your rank?"

"My what?" Temari seemed upset and impatient with me. I didn't know much about anything but what was taught to me about ninja techniques and abilities. I was upset with myself for not learning more about my country and the rest of my horizons.

"Are you a genin or a chuunin?"

"Oh, I was never admitted into an academy. I was never given a rank. I believe in the system I am still a genin." I tightened my grip on the smooth handles and began to pull the cart. "We must get to the Leaf before the sunsets. Hotaka-jiichan needs rest on a bed tonight."

Hotaka rested a hand on my shoulder and smiled at me, "Oshiro-san, please you mustn't worry about an old stranger so much. I have been fine for the last six and a half decades I've been alive." He chuckled a little and my lips eased into another unexpected smile. Temari looked a little surprised but glared at me when I glanced at her.

She elegantly idled in place until we were farther ahead, "I am also traveling to the Leaf. Let me accompany you."

"Oh, how wonderful to have a sand jounin as an escort. Don't you think as well Oshiro-san?" asked Hotaka. I smiled and nodded as I felt Temari's stare against my back. Her teal eyes, the ones I thought that were rather pretty, now held a strange feeling as she watched my coal-dark eyes and black hair walk towards the greatest shinobi village.


	2. Chapter 2

The voyage was silent besides Hotaka's attempts to friendly conversions. He began an interesting one that concerned the Sand village.

"Temari-san," he said in his elderly voice, "why are you coming to the Leaf Village? If it is any of my business of course."

"I am traveling for the kazekage. He is recovering so he cannot travel long distances."

"What happened to Kazekage-sama? Did he get sick?" I asked innocently. The Kages were slightly mentioned during my training and uncle never really taught anything else about it.

Temari looked at me tepidly and sneered, "the Kazekage just had Shikaku removed by the Akastuki. Where have you been?"

She looked down upon me in my chagrin and I blushed profusely, "I lived in a small part of the Star Village." I tapped the headband that I wore across my forehead and felt the cool metal under my finger. I felt closer to home and friends and family when I remembered my nationality. A smile came to my face and I went a little faster with the farmer's load in tow.

We reached the Leaf an hour before sundown. A chuunin escort was waiting for Temari at the gate. She was a visiting diplomat and deserved attention. Hotaka and I were just strangers who didn't require attention, we were let in rather easily when the chuunin gate guards noticed Hotaka and his wares.

Temari went ahead of us and spoke to the chuunin waiting at the gate. He was tall and had markings down his face. His face wore a scowl and muttered something about babysitting a grown woman. Temari glared at him and he snapped to attention, "Temari-sama, the Leaf is grateful to have your visit."

Temari disregarded the sarcasm he obviously displayed and bent in to whisper to him. I saw the chuunin glance at me and then looked to the sand jounin. He took another look at me then beckoned someone within the village.

A tall man with long brown hair, nearly black in the setting sun, and light-colored eyes came to stand by the chuunin's side. They spoke in soft tones and I tried to ignore them.

I helped Hotaka wheel the cart to a dealer's tent. His neighbor had arranged for them to share a tent in the market set-up of the tents off to the side of the ruin village. I bid Hotaka goodbye and finally went to take a look at the Leaf's damage.

There were tents everywhere and wooden structures built hastily to provide shelter. A large table was covered with food and bowls, the people had a mass dinner with all the restaurants and homes blown away. Children ran around the campground with makeshift toys and some genin were helping with the gathering of wood and supplies found within the forest.

I passed a large tent that heralded a medical cross. _Perhaps I can assist with the healing. Uncle did teach me a lot of medical-nin techniques._ I thought. They had a lot of injured and only had a few medicals on hand. I hesitated, but then saw a familiar figure.

A slender, tall back met my eyes as I noticed Temari speaking with a person being treated by a medical-nin. He was handsome, well at least he was my idea of handsome. His hair was pulled back into a spiking ponytail and his eyes were small and brown. He was speaking very seriously to the sand ninja and she had her hands on her hips and she spoke. Her fan was untied and on the floor of the tent.

I stood by the side of the open tent flap and watched the two of them. They seemed to know each other well enough to express a fraction of personality during the conversation. Usually, during diplomatic meetings, everything is severely official, but the two looked to be like a married couple in how comfortable they were in the other's presence, or how much they didn't really mind talking to the other. Maybe they weren't like a married couple if they were getting along so well.

Eventually, I realized I was staring, so did Temari's Leaf companion. He glanced at me quickly, frowned, and looked back up at Temari. She was standing with her back to the door and the boy was sitting on a mat laid out for him. The boy said something and Temari turned to me, gave me an icy look, then continued to examine me head to toe.

"Temari-sama." I said timidly. I used her as an excuse to enter the tent with my hands clasped white-knuckled in front of me, "is this the medical tent?"

"Have you been registered yet?" Temari asked as she bluntly ignored my question.

"R…registered?"

The boy scoffed, "you were right, she doesn't know anything." He looked at me then shooed away the person working on his leg, I presumed that it was broken in many places. "Try and fix me up. You have medical training, right?"

"Shikamaru, you shouldn't." rasped Temari. Shikamaru disregarded her and whispered a word that I couldn't hear.

I nodded and scuffled to the side of his outstretched leg. Confidently, I began the examination process. It was shattered in several places, three precisely. My hand went from a coy green to a bright lime as I churned my chakra into his bones and nerves.

Uncle taught me how to fix bones, something that was not widely known. I had a unique chakra, uncle said, that was perfect for pumping a numbing effect into the nerves as I set the bones. There were places that were being mended, but they were not efficiently bringing the bones together to their original positions.

The fragments were large, which benefited me, and my chakra made a seal to make the attachment seamless. I mended the muscles around the break and connected them back to the bones, as well as the nerves, and did a final check. Finally, I withdrew the numbing chakra and my hand went to its original pale color.

My heart was racing and my muscles trembled, not from exertion but from excitement. I was able to do something I was good at in front of a jounin and this Leaf ninja. I felt proud, especially when Shikamaru moved his leg painlessly for the first time in days.

His sagging eyes went wide with my ability. He was impressed and my chest swelled with happiness. I looked to Temari and she only looked down at me from her tall form. I averted my eyes and grasped the hem of my tunic that rested on my knees.

"Y…you shouldn't move a lot, but walking and jumping will not disrupt the healing." I said with my head still bowed low in respect to the sand jounin.

"That's impressive girl."

"My name is Oshiro Kazuka, Shikamaru-sama."

"Hm…you don't seem like the same blood."

"Shikamaru!" Temari shouted at him in haste. He obviously wasn't supposed to say that to me.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Instead of answering my question, Shikamaru stood and beckoned me. We walked out of the tent and he walked over to a pile of stacked boards and planks. There was a gathering around a campfire with young people sitting around it. I saw the chuunin escort and the man with the long brown hair who were sitting around the fire. They both looked up at me, as did a girl with long blue hair that was nearly black. She had beautiful light-purple eyes that went wide at the sight of me.

Others had the same reaction as they each turned their heads and gasped. A girl with blonde hair and purple garb jumped up and grabbed ahold of Shikamaru's arm, "Shikamaru-kun, who is this? She looks exactly like Sasuke!"

"Who?" I asked. I had never been a resemblance to anyone, not even my family. There was no way I could ever resemble someone from a different country.

Shikamaru shook the blond off and walked off to another pile of boards until I saw a small tent. Some of the teenagers from the fire site followed around the corner. The tent had a small light within and a shadow of a boy was dark against the tent.

"Naruto," Shikamaru called, the shadow moved and someone shouted back.

"Yo, Shikamaru! Are you finally walking again? Did you get a good treatment this time?" a blonde boy wearing a black t-shirt and orange pants pushed the tent flap aside. He had on a large, handsome grin that reminded me of Hotaka in the way that it seemed friendly and open. He stepped from the tent barefoot and frowned when he saw me.

Naruto stopped in his tracks and gave me more than a second glance. I stepped back but the others had surrounded us. "Naruto," Shikamaru said, "We need to talk."

"Who is this?" he didn't offer his hand or name or anything, so I bowed and introduced myself.

"I am Oshiro Kazuka, a ninja from the Star Village."

"That's what we must talk about, Naruto." Shikamaru said in a monotonous tone. He acted as if my introduction were just some words and not my name. I looked at the ninja man. I knew who I was, I knew my identity but why was Shikamaru concerning himself about it. Why wasn't I told anything?

Naruto scratched his blond head, "I don't get it Shikamaru. What's going on?"

Shikamaru sighed and said loosely, "She's an Uchiha."


	3. Chapter 3

"U-chi-ha…?" I had never heard the word before. Was it a name, a title, an insult? I hadn't the slightest idea. Everyone else knew what it meant, I could assume, since most of them gasped and started their own interjections against me and Shikamaru.

Naruto just looked at me in a very serious tone. It frightened me and concerned me. Naruto looked like he was going to cry and yell at the same time.

"How do you know Shikamaru?" asked Naruto. Shikamaru, Naruto, I, and three of the others from the fire site were sitting around another burning set of wood farther away.

"The Uchiha have a unique chakra signature. She possesses such a chakra signature." said a boy sitting with us. He was the one who came to the chuunin's call at the gate. His name was Hyuuga Neji and he could look at my chakra. He was positive that I was properly accused of being Uchiha. I felt like I was being insulted since everyone was becoming upset and angry at the word.

"We should take her to the Hokage." said the girl in the purple. She was Shikamaru's teammate, Yamanaka Ino, and she seemed to be upset by my presence.

"Granny Tsunade is in critical state. No one can see her but Shizune." Naruto said solemnly. "We should inform Kakashi-sensei. He will know what to do."

An hour later I was presented to a man with a head of silver hair. I was hesitant at first, but his eyes smiled at me when I began looking nervous and frightened.

"You're Kazuka-san, right?" he asked. I nodded, "do you know who the Uchiha are?" I shook my head. Kakashi chuckled, "well, you must not have the sharingan yet then, right?"

"What's that?" I asked.

Kakashi said, "it is a bloodline limit that is possessed in the eyes." He lifted his headband that covered his left eye. He stared at me with a scarred red eye: the sharingan. A shiver went down my spine as the red iris followed me and grew more intense with the fragile beating of my heart. My hands flew to my own eyes and I shook my head violently.

That man held the one thing that I was afraid of. What he called the "sharingan" had followed me like my black, heralding features. I hated it: the feel, the power, the punishment I received afterwards. It was the base of my fear.

"I'm not supposed to." I muttered to a near whisper.

"What?" asked Naruto.

"If I show my eyes like that…I am punished."

"Punished? So that means that you have the sharingan?" Kakashi asked.

I nodded, "Yes. The 'sharingan' first appeared when I was eight. Uncle refused to let me out of the attic for three weeks after that. Then it happened again two years later during training. I was blindfolded for a month and beaten during the night and trained severely in the day."

"That's harsh," said Naruto, "Kakashi-sensei, what are we supposed to do with her. Sasuke isn't the last of his clan now, maybe he'll give in a little. Perhaps we could use her as bait to get Sasuke to bargain with us."

"Naruto, we are not treating her like a bargaining chip. She is just an Uchiha that was moved out of the village as a child. She will live here, and perhaps when we encounter Sasuke next, she will come in handy to speak with him."

As Kakashi spoke to Naruto concerning my fate, my sharingan flashed just in time to deflect the kunai coming at me from behind. It clashed with the metal plate over my hand attached to my glove. The group around me suddenly went into action, but eased. They were either comrades or the enemy was not a threat to go into action. The enemy was still a threat to me though.

I was scared. Uncle had prepared me for an ambush, but the power of my sharingan scared me as I remembered how senseless I was after the beatings given as punishment when the red eased onto my face along my long, black hair. I trembled as the scar from Uncle's last punishment stung from memory, just below my ear and streaking across my neck.

"STOP IT!" I screamed. I clamped my hands over my eyes and let the painful tears flow freely. "STOP IT! I don't want this! Go AWAY!"

I felt ill. I couldn't get a steady balance and I teetered over my own feet. I couldn't stop my head from spinning. The power given to me by the sharingan was not priority over the pain I felt from my past.

Along with the fear of Uncle's intimidation, I was afraid of being attacked by a Konoha ninja. I was outnumbered by Leaf ninja and my death would not be difficult. There were Jounin within the audience of followers and I sensed Naruto's power since I entered camp. He was also the only one not injured in the least, but revered as the hero of Konoha.

Another kunai flashed its sharp head in my direction; I deflected it, but began my escape. I saw myself running and running far from Konoha and maybe even getting to another country, but I couldn't move. I struggled and my muscled tightened as I tried to break the invisible chains, but my efforts were in vain.

I was captive to Shikamaru's shadow possession technique: legendary in Konoha's records. There was no escaping his justsu.

Shikamaru made me face the group staring at me. My face burned with my loneliness as I stared my opponents in the face. I was my only ally, at that time, within Konoha. I didn't know what to do. My scars were burning in fear of punishment for using my sharingan and my excitement was replaced by utter fear. It was foolish of me to hope for new horizons in Konoha or anywhere else. I was a useless orphan taken in by people who loathed my blood: I would always be a useless person with no use to anyone.

I didn't know of anything else to do. I didn't want to fight them; I didn't think I could possibly stand a chance. My eyes returned to my familiar black onyx and my entire body shook. Tears poured from my eyes. Hot tears caressed my cheeks with defeat and I wanted to curl up so no one could see my face: a face that caused nothing but discomfort and torment.

"W...what are you doing Shikamaru?" asked Naruto. He nudged his friend on the shoulder, "look at her. She's scared, can't you see?"

"Hn…I see that." said Shikamaru. He didn't release his control over my movements, but I was free to move my arms. Quickly, I covered my eyes and tear-soaked face and sobbed into my palms. I didn't want to be the center of attention; all I wanted to be was alone. I only wanted to care for myself and hear no more nasty words.

Behind Naruto there was a flash of green. Kakashi appeared suddenly with someone slung over his shoulder. He had retrieved the person who had thrown the kunai at me. It was a red-headed girl with bedhead and glasses.

"Karin, why are you being so rude to our visitor?" Kakashi said like a curious father talking to a child.

Karin, the redhead, struggled to get from his grasp. Apparently, she escaped her imprisonment during the chaos of Pain and was just wandering around destroyed Konoha.

"I saw this chick come into the village, and she looked just like my beloved Sasuke. I had to follow her! She has the same charkra: cold and hateful."

"So you just attacked her without any reason?" asked Naruto. He was a little jovial with his question, as if he was going to hit her for being so irrational.

"Well," she pocketed her kunai and lounged over to me, "She may look like Sasuke," she touched my cheek and ran a finger down to my chin, "but she acts nothing like him."

For some reason, this person's comparison of me, whom she knows nothing about, to some stranger, got me really angry. My tears stopped and the heat in my face just increased as I got angrier. Her smirking face just made my hand tickle with anticipation as I pictured my fist colliding with her glasses.

"I want to hit you." I said stoically. I really didn't like her presence or attitude. I was always a great judge of character and this Karin left a fowl aftertaste.

"What did you say bitch?" Karin asked.

I couldn't hold my body any longer. With a fraction of my might, my white-knuckled fist made contact with the side of her face. She staggered back and held a petite hand to her bleeding nose. "You bitch!" she crowed.

She charged at me and swung her fists. She obviously didn't have much tai-jutsu training, but she was not weak in her strengths.

With my feet still restrained by Shikamaru, I quickly ducked her barrage and grabbed her sleeves to throw her. Her feet left the ground as I effortlessly hurled her several meters. My power had been restrained since I couldn't move my legs from the shin down, but it was still enough to subdue her.

"D…did I do something wrong?" I asked the audience of ninjas.

They were all staring at me, dumbfounded. I was in an awkward position and wanted to hide again.

"Let her go Shikamaru." Kakashi told the ninja and he did as he was told.

I felt my knees buckle and I fell to the hard ground. I made no effort to get up, even when Karin finally got up and reached me. She was royally angry at me and my face, "You bitch! How can you have the same face as Sasuke and still think you've done nothing wrong!"

I felt Karin strangle me and throw me to the ground. She said I had done something wrong, so I must not have been welcome or that my aesthetic connection the Sasuke, whoever he was, meant I was also bad.

I was awaiting my punishment from this girl, who obviously suffered at the hands of Sasuke. She might slap me, stab me, kill me, burn me; she could do whatever she liked if it calmed her hatred and betrayal. But through it all, and having to hear the pain in her voice, I still felt no sympathy nor did my dislike of her vanish. She was angry at someone else who I represented and she was not a good person.

"Stop it, Karin!" I heard Naruto's voice as he pried Karin from on top of me. She hadn't hit me, but she wanted to. I knew that, and I couldn't swallow the fact that she was just trying to calm her pride.

"This bitch has the same cold eyes! She will betray whoever tries to trust her. Just like Sasuke!"

I though the whole camp had gone silent in that one instant. A tired anticipation reflected from the others behind me, as if they were exhausted trying to believe against the odds that Sasuke might return and surrender. All of them were solemnly upset and angry to the point of violence. Naruto, on the other hand, was very serious.

He let Karin go and she looked up at him, "Just because you guys were friends doesn't mean your loyalty rubbed off on him. He left you nearly dead and abandoned his village. He tried to kill me as soon as I became useless."

Naruto was about to kill her: or cry. No one was saying anything to reassure him. They knew anything they said would be a lie, and Naruto knew that as well. His heart was connected to Sasuke, I could tell just by seeing his pain. He had not given up, and Karin was merely rubbing salt into his never-healing wound.

Karin knew that what she was saying was hurting Naruto more than any physical attack. She kept at it, "Sasuke killed the people who gave him the most power. Do you think that he will let you live next time?" Naruto, surprisingly, stood and took her words. He was cringing at every syllable and she only got worse, "the only thing he regrets, he told me, was letting you live."

I had heard enough. Sasuke certainly seemed like a complicated person to understand, but I would not believe Karin since she was only saying her individual interpretations of Sasuke.

I grabbed her arm and threw her to the ground. Her face kissed dirt and pebbles as I restrained her arms behind her back and nearly broke her wrist. Her broken bones would suffice as compensation for Naruto's torment, but it was not my place to decide such a thing.

"You should be ashamed of yourself!" I nearly whispered to the back of her redhead. I went to defend Naruto; it might have been the smile that reminded me of that old man, or the fact that he didn't strike Karin when she was 'venting' her own pain by directing harshness at him, but I knew that I wanted to trust him. He knew his friend was dangerous, this Sasuke, but he still held his fidelity to him: I found that admirable.

I felt that he was a good person: someone loyal, trusting, and someone who could open the hearts of anyone who knew him. Just seeing him in the past few minutes, I could see that, but why couldn't Karin? She was blinded by her vengeance and couldn't see how much Naruto was suffering.

"Naruto is not someone who would believe your sour words. You were abandoned by this Sasuke. You were left by the one person you loved and he didn't regret leaving you. He used you and now you are trying to make everyone else hurt for that.

"Don't try to bring others down with you just so you can climb up their bodies and free yourself. That is not how you act for those who want to trust you. That is not how you make allies." I grasped some of Karin's hair in my gloved hand and lifted her face from the ground so I could see her eyes. I gave her my best glare and said quietly, "Do you understand?"

She quickly nodded and, without hesitation, I released her from my grip. Like a prey released from the death grip of a snake, she fled from me. With wary glances, Karin shot glares at me and I eventually lost sight off her.

"Well," said one of the spectators, "I have never seen anyone stick up for Naruto like that." In embarrassment, with the intent of apologizing, I looked back at Naruto.

He was staring at me in awe. I looked at my feet and bowed deeply, "I'm v…very sorry Naruto-san. I will never do such a thing again. I'm sorry; I just couldn't hold it in anymore."

"You look a lot like Sasuke when you're angry." said a pink-haired woman. She walked up to Naruto and nudged him to say something. She smiled at me, but it wasn't genuine. She was happy that I had defended her friend, but I was the spitting image of her other teammate: one who abandoned his village and was qualified as a dangerous S-rank ninja.

Naruto ran a hand through his hair and grinned, "Is this going to be a regular thing?"

"What are you talking about, Naruto?" The new girl asked.

"W…well," he looked over to the people from the campfire who had watched the entire endeavor. One little, rather boisterous, kunoichi blushed and shuffled her feet. I genuinely smiled and watched the others gape even more at having the face of Sasuke smile. But I wasn't Sasuke. I liked to smile and cry and scream. Their Sasuke must never show them his personal side. But, I realize something.

"I…I'm really happy t…to have this face." This caught some people by surprise, considering that he was a man wanted dead or alive. "I mean, I get to think about how you guys became friends, even if he didn't show you his most intimate sides. He must be a great person."

A ninja from the front gate, the one who greeted Temari, came up and scowled at me, "how could you possibly say that, girl?"

I tensed, but my opinion did not change, "He showed his loyalty to his friends before he was corrupted. Even without smiles or tears he was able to show his true feelings. Actions do speak louder than words and that gave Sasuke the ability to make such devoted friends."

The ninja sneered and returned to the others, nearly ten meters from me. He didn't refuse my opinion, but he didn't accept it either.

I hadn't noticed, but my hands had been shaking. My knees felt like buckling again, but I swallowed my nervousness. I wanted my bad times in Konoha to end the moment Karin ran away. "What should I do now?" I asked Naruto: or anyone who would listen.

Kakashi, nearly forgotten on the periphery of the audience, scratched his head. He waited a few minutes before saying, "she should stay with someone until we advance to finding Sasuke."

"I could take her." said the pink-haired woman, Sakura.

Her teacher shook his head, "You are busy with the injured through the village. She must be under constant surveillance of a powerful ninja."

As the others offered potential names and having them rejected by their senior, I looked for a place to sit. Soon, with a quick glance around the settlement, I found a trunk lying horizontally forlorn on the sidelines. I shuffled up to it and sat down. I got some stares, especially from Sakura, so I offered my reasoning, "I haven't rested in three days. Please, continue."

"Fine!" Naruto screamed and threw his hands up in the air as in surrender, "I can watch her. I have some free time and I don't plan on going any missions that don't include finding Sasuke. It works out Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi looked Naruto up and down, studying his stubborn countenance and his obstinate personality. I'm sure the senior was simply trying to find a way to say his approval rather than debating his answer. In the end, he nodded and beckoned me to his side.

Hesitantly, I walked over, regretful of leaving my seat of rotting bark and thriving algae. I bowed my head to him since he seemed to be the highest rank of those gathered, or at least the eldest. He chuckled at my meager obeisance. "I never thought I'd get respect from an Uchiha."

"You're getting _my_ respect. Not an Uchiha's." I said obdurately. "This business of simply classifying as me as Uchiha, a name I had never heard uttered in my sixteen years of life, and laughing to my face about my natural behavior is getting old." This only made Kakashi chuckled again. My cheeks flushed pink with annoyance and embarrassment. That man's humor was worrisome.

"No matter. Oshiro, was it?" I nodded, "You will be under tight surveillance under Uzumaki Naruto. Do not let your behavior slip or I will have no choice but to put you into confinement." He stepped closer, "It won't be pretty." Kakashi smiled at me again with his right eye, his left had already been covered, "Consider yourself warned, Oshiro."

"Y…yeah." I noticed at that time that, despite his looks, Kakashi was very scary when he wanted to be.

"Oh—one more thing." He spoke to the entire caravan of ninjas, "collect all the people who could know she was an Uchiha. That includes all the byakugan users and chakra sensor types. Tell them not to mention anything about her to Danzo. Understood?"

"Yes!" They all answered in unison. I was surprised, really. Kakashi was a person of many faces. Kindness, frightful, authority: Kakashi was a complex Jounin. I was substantially glad that he was on my side, no matter how loosely I could say that.

In a flash, the others were all gone. Sakura rushed off in search of Karin, the most dangerous of sensor types: a bitch.

I was alone with Naruto: genin—according to his legal record-, stranger, unknown ally, personally dense, and now my warden in the confines of Konoha. I wasn't sure if I was going in the proper direction with my debut in Konoha, but what I was sure of was that Naruto, among all his peers, was the most complex person I had ever met.


End file.
